Prince of Persia details

Ubi Soft has revealed some of the first technical details on the recently announced Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. The project's animation art director, Alex Drouin, was quoted on a number of topics, from comparing the game to the original 1989 PC platformer to describing the new graphics engine. One of Ubi Soft's central goals for the new game was to create silky-smooth character animation, something the original game was well known for. The character will be able to interact with many parts of the game's environments, and the physics system can animate elements like hair, clothing, and wall hangings for added realism.

The game's JADE engine is an evolutionary step beyond what the Project BG&E team developed and showed at E3 last year. There are several different camera modes, including a main mode that's freely controllable with the right analog stick, an "esthetic cam" that will provide a different look in any given location, and a camera for the combat that's designed to give the fighting sequences the feel of a Hong Kong action movie.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is currently scheduled for release at the end of the year for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and PC. While Ubi Soft has confirmed the PC version of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Drouin said the Montreal-based team working on the game is focusing on completing the console versions first. In the meantime, check out these screenshots of some of the game's environments.